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New NCSL Database Provides 50-State Data on Asthma-Related Laws and Legislation

DENVER - Asthma affects 10 million adults and as many as 5 million children nationwide, costing states collectively over $10.7 billion in 1998. This prevalence of asthma in America is resulting in a heightened level of interest in its causes, prevention and management by state legislators.

The searchable Web database, located at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/esnr/asthma.cfm, allows visitors to search for information on state asthma bills and laws. The database currently contains all asthma laws and the bills introduced since January 2000. The database will be updated monthly. Users can search for pending or enacted asthma-related legislation and statutes sorting by state for actions surrounding the administration, definition, cost, prevention, and management of asthma.

State legislative activity on asthma—a chronic disease that inflames the airways and lungs, causing shortness of breath, wheezing, and in extreme cases, death—spans a wide variety of areas and issues, from data collection and reporting, basic research, education and intervention programs, treatment, and air quality to insurance and taxes. Forty-one legislatures have acted to reduce asthma rates in their states through varying methods. Actions considered by state legislatures to reduce asthma as a growing epidemic include bills permitting students to administer asthma medications at schools, banning smoking from public places, defining chronic asthma as a disability, making asthma a disease covered in child custody laws, and developing statewide asthma management plans.

The database was created as part of a collaboration between NCSL's Environmental Health Program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address environmental health issues facing the states and state legislatures. The cooperative partnership assists state legislatures in their efforts to tackle environmental health concerns by staying informed on the latest developments in environmental health, studying state legislation and programs and offering insight into federal environmental health policies.

Link to NCSL's Environmental Health pages
Link to additional NCSL online databases
Link to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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